IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v43y2011i6p1421-1437.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right: State and Private Organic Certification in New Zealand Dairy

Author

Listed:
  • Rebecca L Schewe

    (Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan State University, 3700 East Gull Lake Road, Hickory Corners, MI 49060, USA)

Abstract

The global agrifood system is governed by a wide array of organic labels, certifications, and standards. Many of these labels are private, third-party certifications rather than strictly governmental standards; even many national organic standards such as the United States Department of Agriculture National Organic Program (USDA NOP) are actually a hybridization of state-led and private regulatory schemes. Both state-led and private agricultural regulations raise concerns over their relevance to local environments, consistent and transparent application, and extent of democratic stakeholder involvement. This study compares two organic regulations—the USDA NOP and Demeter International—in New Zealand's dairy industry on these key issues of relevance, consistency, transparency, and democracy. I find that the hybrid state/private regulation of the USDA NOP has replicated weaknesses of both state and private regulatory models: the monolithic and hegemonic nature of state regulation has combined with the lack of consistency, transparency, and democracy of private regulation. By comparison, Demeter International certification uses an international equivalency program to increase democratic stakeholder involvement from farmers and relevance to local environments, but has not fully addressed concerns of consistency and transparency associated with private regulations. By focusing on both the structural aspects of neoliberal regulations and farmers' and processors' lived experience of these disparate regulations, this research expands existing theories of neoliberalization to address the diversity of regulation.

Suggested Citation

  • Rebecca L Schewe, 2011. "Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right: State and Private Organic Certification in New Zealand Dairy," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(6), pages 1421-1437, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:43:y:2011:i:6:p:1421-1437
    DOI: 10.1068/a43266
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a43266
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a43266?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tad Mutersbaugh, 2002. "The Number is the Beast: A Political Economy of Organic-Coffee Certification and Producer Unionism," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 34(7), pages 1165-1184, July.
    2. Tad Mutersbaugh, 2005. "Fighting Standards with Standards: Harmonization, Rents, and Social Accountability in Certified Agrofood Networks," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 37(11), pages 2033-2051, November.
    3. Armentano, Louis E. & Dobson, William D. & Jesse, Edward V. & Olson, Norman F., 2004. "The Dairy Sectors of New Zealand and Australia: A Regional Study," Discussion Papers 37518, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Babcock Institute for International Dairy Research and Development.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Julie Cidell, 2014. "Mapping the Green Building Industry: How Local are Architects and General Contractors?," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 105(1), pages 79-90, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Beuchelt, Tina D. & Zeller, Manfred, 2011. "Profits and poverty: Certification's troubled link for Nicaragua's organic and fairtrade coffee producers," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(7), pages 1316-1324, May.
    2. Sam Bliss, 2019. "The Case for Studying Non-Market Food Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-30, June.
    3. Erin Nelson & Laura Gómez Tovar & Rita Schwentesius Rindermann & Manuel Gómez Cruz, 2010. "Participatory organic certification in Mexico: an alternative approach to maintaining the integrity of the organic label," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 27(2), pages 227-237, June.
    4. Laura Raynolds & Douglas Murray & Andrew Heller, 2007. "Regulating sustainability in the coffee sector: A comparative analysis of third-party environmental and social certification initiatives," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 24(2), pages 147-163, June.
    5. Sarah Bowen & Tad Mutersbaugh, 2014. "Local or localized? Exploring the contributions of Franco-Mediterranean agrifood theory to alternative food research," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(2), pages 201-213, June.
    6. E. DuPuis & Sean Gillon, 2009. "Alternative modes of governance: organic as civic engagement," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 26(1), pages 43-56, March.
    7. Janina Grabs & Graeme Auld & Benjamin Cashore, 2021. "Private regulation, public policy, and the perils of adverse ontological selection," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(4), pages 1183-1208, October.
    8. Tysiachniouk, Maria & McDermott, Constance L., 2016. "Certification with Russian characteristics: Implications for social and environmental equity," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 43-53.
    9. Daniel Jaffee & Philip Howard, 2010. "Corporate cooptation of organic and fair trade standards," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 27(4), pages 387-399, December.
    10. Laura Raynolds, 2014. "Fairtrade, certification, and labor: global and local tensions in improving conditions for agricultural workers," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(3), pages 499-511, September.
    11. Simon R. Bush & Peter Oosterveer, 2015. "Vertically Differentiating Environmental Standards: The Case of the Marine Stewardship Council," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-23, February.
    12. McDermott, Constance L. & Irland, Lloyd C. & Pacheco, Pablo, 2015. "Forest certification and legality initiatives in the Brazilian Amazon: Lessons for effective and equitable forest governance," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 134-142.
    13. Snider, Anna & Gutiérrez, Isabel & Sibelet, Nicole & Faure, Guy, 2017. "Small farmer cooperatives and voluntary coffee certifications: Rewarding progressive farmers of engendering widespread change in Costa Rica?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 231-242.
    14. Ponte, Stefano, 2008. "Greener than Thou: The Political Economy of Fish Ecolabeling and Its Local Manifestations in South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 159-175, January.
    15. Maja Tampe, 2018. "Leveraging the Vertical: The Contested Dynamics of Sustainability Standards and Labour in Global Production Networks," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 56(1), pages 43-74, March.
    16. Gingrich, Chris D. & King, Emily J., 2012. "Does Fair Trade Fulfill the Claims of its Proponents? Measuring the Global Impact of Fair Trade on Participating Coffee Farmers," Journal of Cooperatives, NCERA-210, vol. 26, pages 1-23.
    17. Susan Chen & Raymond J. G. M. Florax & Samantha Snyder & Christopher C. Miller, 2010. "Obesity and Access to Chain Grocers," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 86(4), pages 431-452, October.
    18. Julie Guthman, 2004. "Back to the Land: The Paradox of Organic Food Standards," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(3), pages 511-528, March.
    19. Victoria A. Maguire-Rajpaul & Vinesh M. Rajpaul & Constance L. McDermott & Luís Fernando Guedes Pinto, 2020. "Coffee certification in Brazil: compliance with social standards and its implications for social equity," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 2015-2044, March.
    20. Ryan E. Galt, 2013. "The Moral Economy Is a Double-edged Sword: Explaining Farmers’ Earnings and Self-exploitation in Community-Supported Agriculture," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 89(4), pages 341-365, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:43:y:2011:i:6:p:1421-1437. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.